Hezekiah came to the throne in a day of great departure from God. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel were at the very close of their history as a nation, and the land of Judah, because of the wicked king Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, had been humbled by the successive attacks of Israelites, Syrians, Edomites and Philistines; help had been asked by Ahaz of the Assyrians, but they were no help to Judah.
Hezekiah's name means "God is strength", a suitable name, considering this godly man's history. It would appear that he was a boy of about nine years of age when his father became king, and the exceedingly bad example given him all through that father's reign of about sixteen years, must surely have been the great concern of Hezekiah's mother, Abijah or Abi ("my Father is God"). If so, it must have delighted her heart when Hezekiah proceeded, as soon as he became king, to restore what his father had set aside.
In the first month of Hezekiah's reign, he opened the doors of the temple and repaired them; he brought in the priests and Levites, and directed the latter to first purify themselves, and then the house of God, rightly judging that the evils that had befallen the land, were because of their forsaking God.
The beginning of all true restoration must be in that which is due to God, as Hezekiah evidently realized.
Of the Levites, certain sons of Kohath, Merari, Gershom, Elizaphan, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, were aroused to action, gathered their brethren, hallowed themselves, and came to cleanse the temple. The priests went into the inner parts, and carried out all the uncleanness they found into the court, whence the Levites took to it to carry to the brook Kidron. When the work was done, Hezekiah arose early, gathered the princes (heads, or officials) of the city, and went up to the temple.
The long neglected altar of the burnt offering was again put into use when sin offerings were made for the kingdom, for the holy place, and for Judah. This is the first mention of sin-offering since the book of Numbers.
All Israel now came into remembrance (verse 24), for in God's sight the nation was one, though divided because of sin. When the sin-offering was over, atonement made, the burnt offering was sacrificed amid the song of the Lord, the sounding of trumpets and the instruments of David. What a happy day this was in Judah's history! The sin-offering was connected with confession of guilt, but the burnt offering was a recognition of God's glory in a higher sense, than as the Pardoner of the guilty (see Lev. 1:44And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. (Leviticus 1:4)).
Those who were present, were now directed to bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord, and they did so, and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. The priests had been slow to act upon Hezekiah's admonition to the Levites, for they were not as upright in heart as their brethren (God is a discerner of hearts), and the Levites had to help them in flaying the burnt offerings. So was the service of the house of the Lord restored once more. God had prepared the people (verse 36), for the thing was done suddenly.